Rent Arrears
Two Chilling Words
Even the best tenants can find themselves in the rent arrears trap if they fall into financial stress, for example, sometimes this can be caused by events such as loss of employment or a relationship breakdown.
It’s important to begin every tenancy with the end in mind – ensuring your tenant understands what will happen if they fall behind in their rent. Our agency promotes this education by spending around 30-45 minutes with our tenants upon approval of their application right at the beginning, and we explain that being even one day behind in their rent will have a negative effect on every tenant’s rental history, making it difficult to rent again in the future.
The longer the arrears goes on unpaid, can eventually result in a Notice to Leave, therefore terminating the Tenancy Agreement and the tenant being evicted from their home. It’s important to monitor arrears daily, as legally, in accordance with the RTRA Act, a Notice to Leave cannot be issued until the official notices have been issued to the tenant in the required time frames prior to this.
* 7 days behind = Notice to Remedy Breach allowing 7 days to rectify arrears
* If rent has not be rectified, a Notice to Leave is issued allowing 7 days for the tenant to vacate the premises.
* If the tenant fails to vacate the premises, an urgent application to QCAT is lodged for a Warrant of Possession and the Police have the ability to remove the tenant from the premises, when the locks are also changed.
Keeping to these notice guidelines will minimise any extra unnecessary loss of rent.
We’re lucky that the majority of our tenants pay their rent on time, in fact, around 98% of our tenants pay their rent on time. But we’re betting it’s not luck, as we put this success down to our thorough application process and high standard of tenant approval, a strict arrears procedure including tracking our progress in our weekly Property Management meetings, and simply good management.
For more on Property Management procedures, please contact me on 0476 815 970.
